Hesperochiron nanus

California hesperochiron

Family: Hydrophyllaceae · Type: perennial · Native

California hesperochiron is a California native perennial found in the Klamath Ranges, high Cascade Range, Sierra Nevada, Tehachapi, western Transverse Ranges, San Bernardino Mountains, Great Basin, and southern Desert Mountains in wet meadows and valleys at elevations of 770 to 2,620 meters. Flowering from April to July, this plant produces white to bluish-purple, occasionally pink flowers with a bell-shaped corolla 10 to 25 millimeters long and delicate white or yellow-throated petals. Growing as a small, compact plant 2 to 10 centimeters tall with a diameter up to 15 centimeters, it forms a simple caudex with generally no rhizomes. Its leaves are predominantly oblanceolate to elliptic, measuring 1 to 5 centimeters long and 1 to 2 centimeters wide, with petioles sometimes buried in the soil. The fruit is 5 to 10 millimeters long, containing tiny seeds approximately 1.5 to 2 millimeters in size.

Habitat: Wet meadows, flats, valleys

Bloom period: Apr-Jul

Elevation: 770-2620 m

Bioregions: KR, CaRH, SNH, Teh, WTR, SnBr, GB, s DMoj (Rabbit Springs, San Bernardino Co.)

California counties: Placer, San Bernardino, Siskiyou, Ventura, Mono, Plumas, Tulare, Lassen, Modoc, El Dorado, Alpine, Fresno, Inyo, Sierra, Kern, Nevada, Shasta, Mariposa, Trinity, Madera, Tuolumne

Data from The California Species Project — 14,000+ California species with verified data from CNPS, CDFW, USFWS, Jepson eFlora, Cal-IPC, and more.